26. Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai.
27. But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in accordance with the Lord’s orders to Joshua.
28. Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day).
29. He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening. At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day).
30. Then Joshua built an altar for the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal,
31. just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. As described in the law scroll of Moses, it was made with uncut stones untouched by an iron tool. They offered burnt sacrifices on it and sacrificed tokens of peace.
32. There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses.
33. All the people, rulers, leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony.
34. Then Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll.
35. Joshua read aloud every commandment Moses had given before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them.